Improvement in fire-proof cotton-lint rooms



B. R. WARREN. Fire-Proof Cotton-Lint Rooms.

No. l42,065. PatentedAugust19J873.

STATES RUFUS R. WARREN, 0F RALEIGH, NORTH-CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-PROOF COTTON-LINT ROOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,065, dated August 19, 1873; application filed July 14, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RUFUS R. WARREN, of Raleigh, in the county of Wake and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Construction of Lint-Rooms of Cotton-Grins, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention consists in providing the lint-rooms of cotton-gins with a movable cover or ceiling, that may be lowered or raised at pleasure, and retained at any desired point between the top of the walls and the floor, and its purpose is to extinguish fire, which it is well known is liable to occur in lint-rooms, and, as such rooms have been heretofore constructed, proves extremely disastrous in a large majority of cases; and it serves also, when there is no fire, to compress the lint, and thereby render it conveniently re movable after having been ginned.

I will nowproceed to describe my invention, referring to the accompanying drawing, and the letters marked thereon to indicate its different parts.

Ais a lint-room, with one of its walls partly broken away in order to show plainly the movable ceiling or cover. B is the movable ceiling or cover, suspended near the top of the room. I) b are jointed iron rods diagonally crossing the movable cover or ceiling, and in the center are connected by the cross-pieces c 0. These rods are fastened to the corners of the cover, and, in connection with short rod passing through the center of the cover and through both the flat pieces, form part of the means by which the cover is suspended. D is a rope passing through a pulley-block hung to a beam over the lint-room. On one end of this rope is a hook, d, which is hooked into a ring on the end of the short rod, which passes through the center of the movable cover, and also into iron loops which are attached to the flat cross'pieces c c. The other end of the rope passes to a windlass, E, arranged on the platform F, outside the lint-room and close to a gin, so as to be convenient to the ginner. e e are adjustable pieces, which rest upon the journals of the windlass, their pressure thereupon being regulated by means of the nuts upon the bolts ff. Between these adjustable pieces and the lower part of the windlassframe are apertures, through which aniron pin, 9, is thrust, so that its end projects at a right angle to and in the path of the winch h, when it is desired to retain the apparatus in any given position. In the wall of the room just above the ginis a window, 6, through which the ginner may inspect the interior of the lint-room and readily discover fire in case it should occur. The window may be arranged in any convenient position.

The mode of operation is as follows When the ginuer is busy at work at the gin, he can inspect the lint-room, and if fire should be observed therein, he has only to quickly draw out the pin 9 from the path of the winch, and, the windlass being thus left free, the rope is rapidly unwound by the weight of the movable cover, which latter descends and smothers the fire, and may then be elevated again by winding up the rope upon the Windlass.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new is- 1. A lint-room having a ceiling or cover arranged so that it may be lowered at will and raised again, substantially as described, and for the purpose specified.

2. In an apparatus for smothering fires in lint-rooms, the combination of the rods b b with the cross-bars or plate 0 a, movable cover 13, Windlass E, and rope I), substantially as shown and described, for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 7th day of July, 187 3. v

RUFUS R. W ARREN. Witnesses: A. H. TEMPLE,

JAMES HULL. 

